Sunday, August 30, 2015

Can you help greet Sen, Ben Cardin on September 1?/Declaring 'Power In Numbers', People Rally Nationwide for Peace with Iran

President Ron Daniels
is inviting 30 Johns Hopkins University students to a discussion with Senator
Ben Cardin on the proposed Iran nuclear agreement. Sen. Cardin has requested an
open conversation with Hopkins students. Cardin is the Ranking Minority Member
on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Said Cardin, “Our young people have
the most at stake when we consider questions of long-term global stability, so
the opportunity to test my thinking on the proposed agreement with students
will be an integral part of my decision-making process. Maryland’s universities
draw some of the sharpest minds in the world, and I look forward to learning
more about their views on the world.”

Can you join the Pledge of
Resistance at 9:15 AM outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles
Street, on Tues., Sept. 1? Then at 9:30 AM, we will march over to Hodson
Hall on JHU’s Homewood campus. It is hoped that we can engage in dialogue
with Sen. Cardin before he enters the building for the meeting with 30
students. Should we be moved off campus, we will vigil at 33rd &
N. Charles Street calling for Congressional support of the Iran deal.
RSVP to Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.

Also note that office
visits will occur again on September 10. Let us keep the pressure on the
legislators.

Demonstrators
call on Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) to support the Iran deal at a town hall
meeting in Denver, Colorado August 4, 2015. (Photo courtesy of MoveOn)

People
across the United States are taking to the streets, rallying at their local
representatives' offices, and submitting open letters on Wednesday calling on
Congress to choose a path to peace, not war, by saying yes to the
nuclear deal between world powers and Iran.

The
national day of action was organized by a coalition that includes MoveOn,
National Iranian American Council (NIAC), WinWithoutWar, and United for Peace
and Justice, with over
200 actions from coast to coast. Brian Stewart, media
relations director for MoveOn, told Common Dreams that tens of thousands
of people nationwide also signed petitions, slated for delivery to lawmakers on
Wednesday.

The
coordinated mobilizations come as Congress nears the end of the August recess,
after which lawmakers will vote on the pact—potentially as soon as September 9.
As per recently-passed
legislation, the U.S. House and Senate were given a
total of 60 days to review the final deal.

If
lawmakers were to vote against the deal, and amass the votes to override a
presidential veto, Obama's hands would be tied on sanctions relief and the deal
would sink. However, European Union nations are already
showing more enthusiasm to engage, in what some say
is a sign of the growing isolation of anti-diplomacy forces, from the United
States to Israel.

Elham
Khatami, national outreach director for NIAC, told Common Dreams that
Wednesday's nationwide actions are the culmination of a month of mobilizing:
"All of our organizations have been working through August to raise
support, holding meetings and attending town halls. We've come together as a
group of peace organizations today to try and make a really strong showing
outside of congressional offices, because there's power in numbers."

Updates
and commentary on the actions, still ongoing at the time of publication, are
being posted to

The
coordinated mobilizations are aimed at countering a well-funded campaign against
the agreement. They come on the heels of numerous
rallies and messages organized from within Iran, and
the global diaspora, urging Congress to embrace the agreement—and cultivate
peace with Iran.

Dozens of
Iranian civil society leaders and dissidents launched a social media campaign
this week backing
the deal, including those who have faced direct
repression from the Iranian government, arguing that it will ease devastating
sanctions and military escalation, and ultimately open up more space for social
movements.

"Those
who have paid the highest price for the cause of democracy and human rights in
Iran support the nuclear deal, not despite their pro-democracy and human rights
activism, but precisely because of it," said
Mohamadreza Jalaeipour, a former political prisoner, of the project.

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"The master class has always declared the wars; the
subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to
gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and
everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs